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1. Gu Yun and Cao Chunhua
One of the simplest and most reliable maxims any general can follow is: attack the softest spot first. And Gu Yun was an excellent general, he knew with his stunningly good looks, Cao Chunhua would be a very soft spot indeed.
“Xiao Cao!” The Marquis said, smiling brightly at the newcomer to Wang Nan tower, “Just the person I wanted to see.”
This would, on examining evidence, appear to be true. He had, after all, pursued his little friend almost across the capital to corner them into meeting. It was quite a change from the usual pattern of Cao Chunhua chasing the handsome Marquis around, and curiosity had led this particular cat to the lion's den.
Gu Yun’s exuberance made him look moments away from exclaiming “Fancy meeting you here?” which was amusing as much as confusing. Over the years, Cao Chunhua had grown particularly skilled at sensing potential danger. They could sense it now.
“Might I ask why I was summoned here this evening?” They asked, scanning the room for the emperor’s spies. This Lin Yuan meeting place had always felt like a safe spot, somewhere quiet and unobtrusive to shelter, until their current guest pranced in and painted a large target onto their back.
Gu Yun was still speaking in that gentle voice, “Can I not simply ask my favourite little soldier to drink with me?”
Most people could make such a request without any fear of the consequences. There was danger only if a particularly possessive young Emperor was in love with them and liked to scare away innocent admirers; or if they were forbidden to drink by an unofficial Imperial Decree. Gu Yun just happened to fulfil both those requirements, but who had the courage to tell him that?
Cao Chunhua began to wonder if chasing after beautiful men was in fact worth the risks it brought. But they didn’t say that, instead deciding to enjoy the wine and the view. Theirs was a risky profession anyway.
“Then how is my Marquis this fine evening?” They asked, settling themselves in front of Gu Yun, if Chang Geng at some point did descend on them with a burst of jealous fury there was no reason not to make the evening worth it first.
The charm their companion laid on could’ve been scraped off with a trowel, “Excellent and I will be so much better soon, right Xiao Cao?”
Now, with the full force of Gu Yun’s eyes on them, Cao Chunhua suddenly found it hard to speak. His Majesty must be truly powerful if he could survive looks like that regularly.
“It would indeed be a rare occurance to see the Marquis drinking.” They said sweetly, watching the general’s smile freeze in place, “but I won’t tell da ge if you don’t.”
Gu Yun sighed, looking relieved and yet more genuine now, “I won’t drink.” he said watching the waiter bring their cups to the table, “I’m having tea. The wine is for you. I asked them to bring whatever you usually like.”
Cao Chunhua watched Gu Yun take a hesitant sip of his medicinal tea, and then attempt to wash it down with fried croaker. Internally they mourned the unavailablity of beautiful men for a moment, and then congratulated Chang Geng Da Ge for his catch- he had after all been yearning after this one person for the better part of fifteen years.
“What can I do for you, Uncle Shiliu?” They asked, picturing how pretty the Marquis and Emperor, married in every way except perhaps completing their bows, could look in wedding red if there was ever a chance. Cao Chunhua wouldn’t mind organising that.
Gu Yun, utterly clueless as to his companion’s plans leaned across the table, “It’s about Chang Geng, you see.” He confided.
Of course it was. Cao Chunhua didn’t need to be told that.
“You knew him at Yanhui,” Gu Yun went on, “you always knew the most about him. Well honestly you knew the most about everyone in Yanhui, the first with every bit of information…”
Cao Chunhua beamed with justifiable pride, they had begun early in their ability to gather information, and it was flattering that Gu Yun still remembered.
“If there was anything to be known, I did usually know it.” They conceded, taking a demure sip of their wine, “but information about Yanhui is surely too outdated. What could the Marquis want with it now?”
Gu Yun poked his nail into a scratch in the wood, and then absentmindedly picked up another fried croaker, “Chang Geng’s birthday.” He said without looking up, “I was wondering if you knew Chang Geng’s birthday.”
Well… that was disappointing. Somehow, the Marquis of Order had happened upon the one thing Cao Chunhua never could find out. How strange for Gu Yun to be asking for such old affairs now.
Or perhaps not so strange. For Chang Geng, a year always seemed unequally divided between the sixteenth day of the first month, and three hundred and fifty three other days which seemed two separate two of those particular days- the Marquis’s birthday . Why wouldn’t Gu Yun wish to do the same?
“I apologise, Lord Marquis,” they said quietly, “no one in the Xiu family ever mentioned da ge’s birthday.” They paused in thought, a small frown appearing between their brows as they tried to remember, one long neat nail tapped against the wood of the table.
“None of the older women seemed to know either. I even cornered the village doctor but he only had a rough estimate of da ge’s age.” There was a harder than usual tap of their nail against the table, before their hand stopped and they looked up again. “I’m sorry Uncle Shiliu, I can not remember anyone ever mentioning the date. Perhaps Chang Geng da ge himself might know?”
Gu Yun nodded slowly, and tried not to let his disappointment show, it would’ve been too simple to find out with just a single meeting alone.
“Stop frowning, Xiao Cao,” he teased instead, “You’re too young and pretty to get wrinkles. What if I need you to pretend to be me again?”
The effect was immediate, Cao Chunhua’s frown snapped off their face, to be replaced by a wide eyed look. Gu Yun laughed, and pushed the plate towards them, “Eat.” He instructed, “You’re getting all skin and bones.”
Cao Chunhua didn’t take the proffered plate, instead watching him from under their lashes, thoughtfully nibbling on a lower lip. Gu Yun was just about to try and divert their attention when they suddenly brightened up. “Maybe Ge Chen knows!” they suggested.
When Gu Yun looked unconvinced, they hastened to explain further, “I wasn’t the only one in lo- Da Ge was always very popular amongst the village kids, wasn’t he?”
Gu Yun smiled fondly at that, Chang Geng had always been immensely popular. He had also been completely oblivious to the fact, focussed more on eluding his constant satellites and studying something or other.
Not much had changed there, even now, His Majesty managed to be utterly oblivious to his many admirers as he went about his day, fighting iron puppets and dealing with court matters. Gu Yun had gone from proud to rather offended at just how many others would gladly try to replace him in Chang Geng’s heart, and by his side.
Cao Chunhua continued speaking, “His father was the butcher, I think the maids from the Xiu household always gossiped with his mother. Even if the village didn’t know… if any celebrations were held, who else would know if not the butcher?”
Who indeed.
Gu Yun watched Cao Chunhua look down to where they were fiddling with the links of their bracelet, seemingly counting something against each flower, before they looked up. “Even if Ge Chen doesn’t know, I’ll find people who might. If there’s nothing else at hand, I can submit the list to the Marquis within a day at the earliest.”
They really were Gu Yun’s favourite little soldier in times like this. He might not miss the war, he would never miss the war, but he did miss working with someone as bright and as resourceful as Cao Chunhua.
“Come to the Marquis Manor with it anytime.” He said lightly, “It’s always good seeing you.”
2. Gu Yun and Ge Chen
And that was how Ge Chen, emerging from underneath a mechanical wagon, nearly screamed at the sight of another person in the room with him.
“MARQUIS SIR!” He exclaimed, staring at the upside down countenance of a smiling Gu Yun, and attempted to right himself rather like an upturned bug.
Gu Yun helpfully extended a hand towards him, and tugged him seemingly without effort. Ge Chen fought off a feeling of lightheadedness as he stared at his own scarred and greasy hand held gently in Marshal Gu’s even more scarred and rather colder one.
Surreptitiously, he tried to wipe some of the grease from his cheek off with his sleeve, as he turned to the wash stand, and then gave up the effort as futile. Gu Yun had seen him in worse condition often.
“Is the Marquis here to see his Majesty?” He asked slowly, “The emperor is not due to inspect the wagon until tomo—”
“No, no!” Gu Yun interrupted hurriedly, “that’s quite alright. And between us, Xiao Ge, don’t mention to him that I’m here, yes?”
Ge Chen blinked up at the rather hunted expression Gu Yun wore, and marvelled at how little seemed to have changed since Yanhui. He had a vague memory of Shen Shiliu at his parents' shop, attempting to invite himself to dinner after Teacher Shen and Chang Geng forbade any meat at the Shen family table. He had worn much the same expression then, every time he looked over his shoulder.
The memory caused a familiar pang in his chest, no matter where he was in life, he would always miss his fathers little shop and their home, and his parents… but for now, that pang was slightly overshadowed by the surprise that even such small domestic moments in their tiny town had involved the great Marquis of Order himself.
Looking at him now, in unusually practical dark blue robes, he was the only point in the room not covered in sweat, smoke, grease or burn marks. His long hair fell to his hips in shiny waves and his hands were clean and well kept, more so than Ge Chen had ever seen them. He seemed as ridiculously out of place in a workshop as he had in Yanhui and the butchers shop, sticking out like a sore thumb.
The sore thumb in question was now happily arranging a package he had apparently carried over on the work table, and the smell of food made Ge Chen’s stomach rumble. When was the last time he had eaten? That morning? At dawn? The sun was already riding low on the horizon now. Perhaps that, and not the Marquis’s casual show of strength, had caused his lightheadedness.
“Is there any way I can help you, Marquis Sir?” He asked, attempting to dry his now washed hands on a rag.
Gu Yun looked up in surprise, and then smiled pleasantly, “Can I not simply come to visit my favourite nephew for no reason?”
Not in a workshop in the Ling Shu institute. Ge Chen thought, but didn’t say. He didn’t really have a chance to, as Gu Yun ushered him down to sit opposite him, clucking and fussing in a manner reminiscent of Chang Geng and General Shen.
It seemed a strange mannerism on him, and Ge Chen marvelled at the way proximity had caused such behaviour to be learnt even by Marshal Gu.
The food, he realised, consisted almost exclusively of his own favourites, and he wondered if perhaps Cao Chunhua’s letter promising him a surprise had anything to do with this. It was too late to inspect the letter again, Ge Chen had a vague memory of using the back of that sea grain paper for a calculation he had then burned in disgust.
“How’s your work going, Xiao Ge?” Gu Yun asked as he poured water out for them. Ge Chen was surprised at the absence of wine but decided he could hardly work after drinking and perhaps, for the Marquis, the emperor’s influence did stretch this far.
The rest of the meal passed in easy silence, on Gu Yun’s part anyway. On Ge Chen’s part, it passed in the form of a discourse on the day's work.
It was only at the conclusion of the meal, as their conversation somehow turned towards the Emperor and skirted around Yanhui again that Gu Yun spoke again.
“Xiao Ge, I had been thinking of Chang Geng recently.” He began, and before Ge Chen could mentally point out that he must think of Chang Geng often, he continued, “or rather, I’ve been thinking of his life before he met me.”
“My da ge always seemed so much happier after he met you,” Ge Chen said, quite honestly. It didn’t hurt to mention something Gu Yun surely already knew.
The words had the effect of flustering even the Marquis of Order, as he sat there, fighting off a sappy smile for a moment, before he cleared his throat.
“Yes, about that. Did he ever celebrate his birthday when you knew him?” He asked, leaning forward on the scarred work table in his eagerness.
Did he?
Ge Chen frowned to himself as he tried to remember the years he had known his Chang Geng da ge. From their earliest days in Yanhui, following the older boy around, to the time he had spent travelling with Chang Geng, and to later years he had spent helping Yan Wang.
He could remember the first birthday he had spent in the capital, and he could remember Chang Geng- even younger than he was now- but already responsible for two little boys. He had been awkward and blustering, giving him a book on mechanics and handing him a bowl of noodles before turning to scold Cao Niangzi.
Those noodles, unlike the Marquis’s, had been made with skill only the kitchen staff had possessed then, but both the gift and the noodles were a surprise to a boy who had thought such indulges lost, reduced to flames with the rest of his family and home.
Chang Geng’s attempts at celebrating his birthday had continued every year after that, gaining greater finesse and growing less awkward as the time passed, but he had never missed a single year.
It wasn’t just him either. Cao Chunhua had also got their share of noodles every year. There had also been gifts which improved in quality and increased in expensiveness as Chang Geng grew more powerful, but had less time to make them a gift the way he used to in days past.
The most recent one had been a bracelet even Ge Chen could acknowledge was exquisite, with small silver links and flowers in a rare gemstone that had to have come from one of their foreign expeditions. Cao Chunhua had been wearing that every day since they got it.
But what of Chang Geng Da Ge’s birthday? Had there ever been a single day when he seemed any different, when he allowed others to give him gifts? Ge Chen didn’t think so. He and Cao Chunhua had given their idol gifts whenever they found anything for him, offered prayers for him whether he dragged them to a temple, but there had been no pattern to those dates.
Gu Yun was watching his face, and now he sighed, and shook his head, “Trust your Chang Geng da ge to make everything harder for me.” he muttered fondly, “Can’t have the Marquis of Order stagnate with nothing to do.”
Ge Chen smiled apologetically as he confessed his lack of any response, and then suggested hesitantly, “Marquis, sir, have you considered asking da ge?”
“I should.” Gu Yun agreed, “but ten years was enough time for him to tell me, wasn’t it?”
It should’ve been long enough for him to have told Ge Chen or Cao Chunhua as well. But it wouldnt be Chang Geng if he did.
Ge Chen hoped the Marquis could find out a date. He felt like he had a decade’s worth of gifts he wanted to give his childhood hero.
3. Gu Yun and Shen Yi
Cao Chunhua naturally was as good as their word, and the list of names was in Gu Yun’s hand before two days had passed.
Gu Yun had received them in the marquis manor this time, and later sent them a pot of rogue a misguided subordinate had sent him from the west as a present. Neither he nor Chang Geng could do justice to that particular shade anyway.
He had then dragged Shen Yi out of his miserable week home- spent in the Shen family manor, and dragged him around town behind himself instead, checking off each name on the list as they came to it.
Shen Yi, bemused but still glad to be away from old master Shen and talks of marriage, went along on every visit without asking much in the way of the questions, at least for the first few days.
A week was enough to wane his initial enthusiasm, so was the odd trend of Gu Yun’s questions, and the increasing chances that his friendly conversations with former eunuchs, maids and doctors might start involve threats and windslashers at any moment.
“Zixi,” he asked, eyeing Gu Yun cautiously as they struck another name off their list, “is this about the other child w-”
“Jiping!” Gu Yun snapped, loud enough that Shen Yi almost flew out of his skin, the sound of his name echoed in the confines of the carriage for several moments, and Gu Yun allowed them to linger. Only the crackle of paper as Gu Yun crumpled up the list could be heard.
“Whatever we heard that night did not happen.” He said very slowly, shaping each syllable with a furious precision, “I will never allow anyone to question his majesty in my presence without paying for it. Understood.”
This wasn’t the first such threat Gu Yun had made regarding an emperor, but it seemed like the most personal one. Shen Yi didn’t seem daunted however, he only leaned back and watched Gu Yun calmly, “You’re frustrated, just let it out.” he invited.
Gu Yun only glared at him, until he raised his hands in defeat, “Nothing was said to us that night. Zixi, you know I would never hurt him, he is a blessing to Great Liang, and he is good to you.”
Gu Yun glared for a moment longer, and then kicked the wall of the carriage unhappily with his leg, “Of course you won’t.” He snapped.
Shen Yi watched Gu Yun cut another name off the list before throwing the wad of sea grain paper at him, cursing discontentedly the entire time. “Damn his cursed mother, and damn his demon aunt and-”
“- damn his useless father too?” Shen Yi suggested mildly, just to push at his friend’s limits again.
Gu Yun’s lip twitched, and he grunted in response. Apparently he couldn’t rage against the emperor for his own sake, but for Chang Geng’s sake was another matter.
“You know, Marshal,” Shen Yi said after a pause, “I might be more helpful if I knew what you wanted, instead of the hints and evasions I’m offered now?”
Perhaps he would. Perhaps Gu Yun also owed him an explanation after lugging him across the capital and three neighbouring villages over the past week searching for an answer to a question he didn’t even know.
But it felt ridiculous to admit to Shen Jiping of all people, the ridiculously sentimental urge that had swept him up into this fool's errand.
“If it’s regarding a birth, the Chen family might be able to help too…” was the next inducement, dangled in front of Gu Yun nose like a carrot baiting a donkey. But it tipped the scales. It didn’t matter that Jiping was almost definitely angling for another meeting with his love.
He glared at Shen Yi, daring him to laugh as he admitted, “I want to know Chang Geng’s birthday.”
Shen Yi didn’t laugh, he seemed too confused to. “And you can not ask him… because…”
Gu Yun tugged at the seams of his sleeve, and then grew bored of that and ran a finger along the wrist sheath of blades he wore. “It’s not as much fun.” He grit out.
Shen Yi’s eyebrows were nearly level with his hairline, he didn’t need to question Gu Yun’s use of the word fun verbally.
“And I want to do something nice for him,” Gu Yun said, irritated and frustrated, “if he wanted to tell me, he would have. I thought it would be nice to surprise him, without mentioning why. Just make it a good day? But damned if I know when I am supposed to do that.”
He kicked the wall again, and General Shen had a moment of wondering if there would be any carriage left for the travel in, especially once the wrist sheath became involved.
“Zixi, you know any day you choose t-” but Gu Yun’s glare silenced him. Any day wouldn’t do if Gu Yun was missing an all important one. Shen Yi tried to still the beating of his own heart as he offered the most likely person up to Gu Yun again, “Perhaps, Miss Chen really…”
“We will write to her.” Gu Yun conceded, knocking his head against the back of the seat and glaring up in silence for the rest of the route.
Shen Yi didn’t speak either, he was too busy mentally writing Miss Chen that note.
4. Gu Yun and Miss Chen
Ultimately, the letter Miss Chen received was a mix of Gu Yun and Shen Yi’s combined effort. As much as Gu Yun had taken Shen Yi’s assistance for granted, it had been with some surprise that he realised his friend really did intend to write the note with him.
“Just write to her yourself.” He had grumbled, stopping Shen Yi’s face with a hand as it came to loom over his composition again, and pushing it back, “Your own letter, not mine.”
“I’m helping!” Shen Yi insisted, “I always used to write your letters for you!”
And that argument had held. Gu Yun felt like he had made a bargain with a demon as a callow youth, and that demon had now come to extract its due from him.
“If Chang Geng finds me flirting with doctor Chen because you couldn’t keep yourself out,” he threatened, and Shen Yi had finally subsided. Gu Yun suspected his surrender was rooted less in fear of Chang Geng, and more in the realisation that a letter ostensibly from Gu Yun to Miss Chen, should not contain the respectful devotion he was attempting to pour into it.
Miss Chen’s reply came early the next morning, narrowly missing Chang Geng who had been delayed on his way to court. Shen Yi for his part, as good as followed the mechanical bird through the window.
The letter, once the two generals had finished squabbling over it, and finally turned to read it, was in Miss Chen’s characteristically matter of fact style. Gu Yun’s focus was on the opening remark.
“There are no records in the Chen Family’s books of any childbirth during this period, in any capacity. Perhaps the individual in question might have the greatest detail as to this event.”
In any capacity… so neither as doctors, nor as spies. Gu Yun wondered if there was perhaps a hidden power of some sort, determined to obscure this information from him.
Meanwhile Shen Yi started at the final words of the letter, a response to Gu Yun having added that General Shen sent his respectful regards at a time when the General Shen in question wasn’t looking.
Miss Chen had written ““I trust my letter also finds General Shen in good health.”
Not the most encouraging words for a lover by any means, but they seemed to please Shen Yi beyond measure.
Gu Yun left Shen Yi clutching the letter and reading the final words over and over. He knew, with mounting horror, that only one course of action remained yet untaken.
5. Gu Yun and Liao Ran
It was the second time in a year that Gu Yun found himself making his way to the Hu Guo temple, and he seemed no less pleased about it this time than he had the last. Anyone watching his determined stomp up the temple steps might have assumed he had come to seize or attack for some purpose of his own.
Even worse, this time he couldn’t hope to evade the bald donkey, and make a quick escape. A reminder that he had been unable to make a quick escape on his previous visit did nothing to cheer him.
Master Liao Ran found him at the temple gates, attempting to glare two monks into submission, and hastily rescued his juniors by drawing his attention away.
They walked together in silence, on Gu Yun’s part the grumpy silence of a man who refuses to set his companion at ease with conversation, and on master Liao Ran’s part, the inevitable quiet that came from a mute man in the company of a deaf one.
It was only once they were in a small chamber that smelled strongly of incense, that Liao Ran attempted to make conversation.
“Has the Marquis come to pray?” He asked unhelpfully, knowing well that Gu Yun would never have attempted any such act for a second time. All he got in response was a sneeze.
Gu Yun sniffed and glared at a stick of incense accusingly, and perhaps on purpose, stalled their conversation for as long as he could manage.
It wasn’t too long, one of Liao Ran’s juniors had soon entered the room they were in, bearing a tray and a steaming pot on it. He, rather than Liao Ran, made the offer of tea.
Gu Yun’s expression at that would not have been out of place had he been offered a cursed object from a demon realm, meant to entrap him within its walls forever if he succumbed. It was clear breathing the air in the Hu Guo temple had stretched this man’s limit, and no further could be expected from him.
And to think tea had come from none other than his Majesty, but if Gu Yun chose to mistrust it… Liao Ran shrugged internally, and attempted to communicate with Gu Yun again.
“How may I help the Marquis?” He asked, shaping the words in haste for fear that his interlocutor might once again look away and force them to stay longer in uncompanionable silence.
Gu Yun raised his own hands to sign back at him before seemingly shaking himself in annoyance, and speaking, “I wished to ask if the Master perhaps knows anything of the circumstances of His Majesty’s birth.” He bit out, before settling back to glaring, almost as though he challenged Liao Ran to reply.
The monk thought for a moment and then signed back, “What exactly would the Marquis like to know?
A look of impatience crossed Gu Yun’s face, gone before it could settle, and he said, “Didn’t the former Head Monk have a hand in the escape of the noble consort and her sister? I wondered if he had ever recorded relevant dates.”
And that was a wound only the Marquis of Order would have poked in such a matter of fact, nearly callous way. But Liao Ran had been healing from it, the same way he suspected Gu Yun was healing from the betrayal of His Majesty Yuan He. It was a strange bond for them to have in common, but the bond did exist, and it allowed him to answer with greater calm than he otherwise would have.
“The Marquis wishes to discover date of his highness’s birth?” It grated to admit a lack of knowledge, and yet he had no choice. “The only person who is aware of his birth is his highness himself, even the Marquis perhaps knows more than we do.”
“But how is that possible?” Gu Yun grumbled, “Master-”
“My former teacher misplaced the sisters,” Liao Ran signed quickly, “or chose to lose them. We had not thought there were any survivors on the trail…”
Gu Yun pressed on, “And after you found out there were?”
Liao Ran gave him a look that, on the face of anyone less pious, might have been annoyance, “Marshal, once you found the remnants of the group of bandits, there really were no survivors. By then… his Majesty had also forbidden the Lin Yuan pavilion from investigating further.”
So he and Chang Geng had closed off that route for themselves. Gu Yun grit his teeth, and tried to imagine asking a bandit for his own lover’s date of birth on pain of death. It would never have worked.
“So you never thought to look into it earlier?” Gu Yun pressed on, unwilling to give up and let the trip be a complete waste.
“I had trusted the man who raised me.” Liao Ran said quite simply, and watched Gu Yun’s glare fade as realisation dawned.
“I see,” he said slowly, “I have troubled the Master for nothing then.”
Liao Ran gestured for him to stop just as he had begun to rise, and quickly signed a suggestion, “It might be best to ask his Majesty himself.”
6. Chang Geng and Gu Yun
Ultimately, it was Chang Geng who broached the subject rather than Gu Yun.
“Zixi, the Minister of Rites requested a private audience with me today.” He said, the next evening, causing Gu Yun to stop in the middle of stealing another kiss as though he’d bumped his face into a wall.
Gu Yun blinked. That was not what he had expected Chang Geng to say, especially when he could still feel His Majesty’s paw attempting to insinuate itself into his clothes.
Reluctantly, he took hold of Chang Geng’s wrist, and moved it out from underneath his clothes, “If this is about finding you an empress again…” he began unhappily.
“It’s not!” Chang Geng immediately protested, stalling Gu Yun’s attempts to get off his lap with a firm hold around his waist. Gu Yun shot him an exasperated look in return, but did not attempt to move away again.
“Alright then, your Majesty,” he conceded, settling down more comfortably on his perch, “tell me what it was about.”
Chang Geng would not meet his eyes, and Gu Yun wondered why he insisted on them being face to face if he had to attempt to hide anyway. “It appears,” Chang Geng began, stroking one hand along Gu Yun’s shoulder, and attempting to tidy up the disorder his own wandering hands had caused to Gu Yun’s clothes, “an emperor needs a birthday. They wanted to know mine.”
To simply ask Chang Geng for his birthday? After all the effort Gu Yun had put in trying to find it out and surprise him? Gu Yun grit his teeth and pinched the tip of Chang Geng’s nose to relieve his annoyance, and then stroked his hand along a cheekbone to comfort him, the poor boy looked so forlorn.
“Surely you knew that? You’ve been in the capital for so many of those.” he asked gently.
Chang Geng’s response was too quiet for his half deaf ears to even hear, mumbled the way it was, and he had to get him to repeat it. “I said I didn’t think anyone would need mine.” He grumbled. And before Gu Yun could argue, added, “Except you of course, but you seemed to be having fun investigating on your own.”
Gu Yun almost fell off Chang Geng’s lap as he drew himself up in annoyance. He pretended not to notice the quick reflexes on both their parts that kept him in place as he demanded, “And which traitor has been running his mouth? Who told you this? When I find-”
“You did.” Chang Geng informed him. For the first time in the conversation, he sounded his usual insufferably calm self, “Zixi, why else would you run around the capital talking to everyone we know except me? Why else would you look for Eunuchs and doctors who attended my- who attended the former noble consort? And as for the Lin Yuan pavilion…”
How could you strum on a spider's web without alerting the spider.
Chang Geng seemed to read his thoughts, again, and pulled him closer to rest his head on Gu Yun’s shoulder, “Zixi, you know I never accept any reports about you.”
Gu Yun gently stroked the back of Chang Geng’s neck, his annoyance melting away completely. “Of course, I know.”
It had been a supreme sacrifice on the part of someone as concerned for his well being as Chang Geng was, but no reports on the Marquis of Order’s activities or interactions were ever asked for, and any that were presented, passed unread on to the Marquis himself.
Chang Geng had said it was because he trusted that anything he needed to know, Gu Yun would tell him anyway. Gu Yun could understand the underlying meaning as well. In all the world, Chang Geng had very few people close to him, even fewer he ever told the full truth too. Since Gu Yun was the exception who knew everything about him, how could he be treated the same as the rest.
Reports on Gu Yun would only be futile, no one in existence could turn Chang Geng against him, and no power in existence would be able to protect Chang Geng from further hurt if Gu Yun ever did betray him.
Luckily, Gu Yun had served two emperors with absolute honesty and loyalty up to the day of their deaths, and intended to be loyal to this particular emperor through every life and death if he could.
“You’re right,” he said, combing his fingers soothingly through Chang Geng’s hair, “I was after the same answer as the ministry of rites, but for more selfish reasons. I wanted to make you happy.”
A pair of wide surprised eyes looked up at him from his shoulder and Chang Geng said “You do make me happy.”
Gu Yun laughed, he couldn’t resist kissing his little wolf cub on the forehead. Finally, he decided to ask the question he had been itching to from the first moment, “So tell me, Your Majesty, what date did you give them?”
Chang Geng’s face turned down to tuck against his neck again, the arms around his waist tightened a little. Gu Yun squirmed as both spots tickled, but he refused to be swayed, “Your majesty?” He prodded, and then a moment later, “Chang Geng?” and when that didn’t yield any results, he bent his head closer and purred “Darling?”
That got him a slight shiver, and a quiet gasp, and he pressed on, his breath causing the shorter wispy curls to flutter “My darling Chang Geng, won’t you tell Yifu?”
He expected retaliation by then, Chang Geng routinely paid him back for teasing in the currency of excessive medical fussing or excessive shamelessness. Instead, he watched a light blush creep over his little emperor’s ear.
Gu Yun was delighted. He wondered why he had ever bothered running around town with that old maid Shen Yi, or tortured his eyes with the cursed countenance of that bald donkey Liao Ran in his stinky surroundings when he could’ve just done this. Asking his Majesty was by far the most enjoyable way of finding out.
“Yifu,” Chang Geng said quietly, his voice muffled by Gu Yun’s own throat, “Do you remember the day you and General Shen found me? When the wolves…”
Gu Yun drew back from his teasing, his expression had turned more serious, “Of course I do. The fourth day of the twelfth month.”
Chang Geng looked up in surprise, again, and Gu Yun took the opportunity to cup a hand around his face. As he had expected, Chang Geng leaned into his hand, and turned to leave a kiss on the palm, and promptly forgot to hide his face again.
“But that isn’t your birthday, the noble consort was… that summer…” Gu Yun’s brow wrinkled as he tried to puzzle out the dates he’d recently gone over himself, but Chang Geng did it for him.
“I don’t have any other day, Zixi. I’ve always been two people.” He said simply, “I was never told my day of birth, and Hu Ge Er’s son… he was in me for so long, how can I have a day just to myself? It doesn’t feel fair. I still don’t know which of us I am.”
Gu Yun bit back the sharp retort he was so tempted to make, and forced himself to listen instead. Whatever acceptance Chang Geng could find for the thing that had been done to him, it wasn’t Gu Yun’s place to shake it.
“You’re my person,” he said finally, “and I love you exactly the way you are, if you were different in the past, then that was who I loved, and if you’re different in future, that is who I’ll love, but you will always be my person.”
You will have me no matter who you are and what you do. The question of his identity was one Chang Geng had to puzzle out on his own, all Gu Yun could do was remind him that his love would never be conditional on that.
Chang Geng blinked rapidly up at him, a strange parody of the way he sometimes batted his lashes at Gu Yun, and then blurted out “So can I give that day as my birthday? The day you found me? The day you saved… us?”
“Would that make you happy?” Gu Yun asked, curiously, he wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but it wasn’t his date to choose.
Chang Geng nodded, “Until that day… I had never had anything to look forward to in life, Zixi. No hope. She could’ve killed me any moment, and then tried to bring me back. And I don’t know much I would have cared. I had no future, no way to escape and nothing to look forward to.” He sounded so calm about it, Gu Yun’s heart broke.
“Yifu, birth is one thing, I only started living when Shen Shiliu came into my life.” Chang Geng said, clearly meaning every word.
Gu Yun stopped him with a kiss before he said anything more devastating, and to reassure himself that Chang Geng was indeed there, alive and bright and warm, and with plenty of ability to bite left in him.
“So will you let your Yifu spoil you on the fourth day of the twelfth month every year, sweetheart?” He asked when they parted for air.
Chang Geng gaped at him for a moment, looking adorably rumped and confused. and Gu Yun wanted to laugh. Silly boy, had you really imagined this would end as a formality? What did you think I wanted your birthday for, filling out the manor’s paperwork? I’m not the Ministry of Rites, your Majesty.
Trust Chang Geng not to even consider the prospect of celebrations.
He ran a finger along the collar of his Chang Geng’s robes, letting his own hands slip inside now, parting the two folds further. “A whole day just for me to take care of you and dote on you?” he pressed.
The gears were slowly beginning to turn behind Chang Geng’s bright eyes, he seemed rather taken with the idea, and Gu Yun continued coaxingly “Can this devoted subject not dedicate himself to serving your majesty for that one day?”
“I’m counting on it, Marshal Gu.” Chang Geng said, recovering himself admirably after a pause, and Gu Yun decided to pretend he hadn’t heard Chang Geng swallow audibly.
“Excellent!” He said, sliding slowly off Chang Geng’s lap, the brat had truly been considerate in positioning him, his legs didn’t feel any the worse for having remained curled in an unusual position for so long.
“Zixi?” Chang Geng asked in confusion, watching Gu Yun adjust his appearance further, and no doubt feeling the rush of blood back into his own thighs, they were such nice thighs too. “Where are you going?”
Nowhere you can’t chase me and catch me. would’ve been an honest answer.
Naturally, Gu Yun didn’t intend to give it. Instead, he plastered an enthusiastic smile on his face, allowed his robe to hang loosely over a shoulder as he made his way to the door, “To plan of course, my son!” He called out, “only four months remaining, and it’s your first birthday too, I can not be found lacking against the Ministry of Rites, can I?”
“Zixi, come back!” He heard Chang Geng whine before a small grunt and bump sounded, a clear sign of pursuit. Gu Yun slowed his steps just a little as he raced towards the study, to give his Majesty’s legs a respite, their current state was after all his fault. The same way his frustration over the past week had now been chalked up as Chang Geng’s fault.